Earth and Fire
by Komikron
Summary: a collection of IoRyuu drabbles, taken over from my writing-related tumblr. Partially based on promts; will be updated whenever I write something new.
1. Truth

** H**

For quite a while now, Io had the feeling somebody was following him. Always walking a few feet behind him, always keeping the same distance. He could clearly hear his stalker's footsteps all the way from the bus stop up the street and when he had almost arrived at his house, he finally decided to take the matter into his hands.

"Ryuu, is there something you want to tell me?"  
He stopped on his tracks and turned around.

What he saw now was his best friend glaring at him, in a way he supposed he had looked all the time during their silent walk. In fact, Io had almost been able to feel Ryuu's pink eyes piercing through him from behind. Ryuu was a passionate person, but he had hardly ever experienced directed his anger against his friend. Somehow, it had always worked out between them.

"You should be the one to explain himself", Ryuu replied almost overdramatically, "What was this all about? Did you really plan on leaving us hanging?"

Io had seen this coming. It was clear that the earlier explanation had been enough for the other members of the Defense Club to close the affair, but Ryuu was a completely different case. The two of them had always been together, ever since Io could remember, and even though breaking with the club had never meant breaking with his friend in general terms, Ryuu took it as personally as expected.

But despite all correct calculations, seeing him now this way was not something Io had actually wanted to happen.

"The position as treasurer could have come in handy for a future career."

"So why did you come back anyway?"

They had been over this earlier already, why was Ryuu suddenly making such a fuss out of it? Everything had been said. Io had apologized and promised to stay with the Defense Club. He had turned down the student council's offer before the end of the school day and returned to the daily business of defending Earth from alien monsters.

But Ryuu was here standing in front of him, pouty face and all, voicing his anger as well as he could without actually shouting at him. Thinking of it, Io realized how his friend had made sure he would here his shuffling as he had followed him all the way here, even though his own home was within the complete opposite direction.  
But what more than an apology would he want? Why did he keep on asking? What did he want to hear?

Sure, Io could tell him how today's battle had shown he couldn't get anything done without him, how, in the end, he had been the one who had to bail him out. Or that the Defense Club would have been shut down without a fifth member, that he just couldn't turn his back on his friends. But Ryuu wasn't stupid, he knew all this, of course he did.

But these were the only things Io could actually say. He could impossibly talk to his friend about how all of these arguments had another, deeper layer to them.

He could never tell him how seeing him being tickled into submission by a random guy that had turned into a weird monster had made him feel. Ryuu's ticklishness used to be a weakness few people knew about and only Io had exploited so far. That his financial trades were hardly the same without this faint background of chattering. That he couldn't bear the possibility of him getting hurt each time they became Battle Lovers, especially after all that had happened already.

No, it was impossible to talk about this with someone whose head was always full of plans for the next flirt or date.

Ryuu would never understand.

But in the end, that was not the important thing, was it? He had returned to them, had not let them down despite the profitable offer. There was no reason to complain anymore, was there? Everything had been said.

Yet Ryuu was demanding more explanations and it somehow hurt. From a logical point of view, he had every right to be suspicious, to sulk and to scoff at him, but it still hurt. The possibility that he might distrust him hurt Io a lot more than he had thought.

This was just another sign that he absolutely couldn't talk about everything. At least not right now.

Maybe at some point, when everyone had calmed down, it would be a good idea to talk matters through. Maybe one day they could sit down together and be open about their thoughts and feelings about everything.

But not now. That was way too early.

"You still haven't answered my question", Ryuu remarked after a long while of silence.

No, this was really not the best time for an absolutely frank answer now. Not before he had found out why everything hurt so much more than expected.

"Why did you come back anyway?"

Finally, Io took out his house keys from one pocket and shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess it's more fun with you guys."

This was not a lie, but not the complete truth either.

The question was just whether Ryuu ever wanted to hear it.


	2. Back to Back

** . T O . B A C K**

(based on a tumblr promt, "Love me")

Ryuu took a deep breath to inhale the early summer air. It smelled of fresh grass and flowers and birds and everything he loved. Summer was great.

He sat in the shadows of an old tree, away from the ever growing strength of the sun, back to his best friend. In fact, Io's back supported his, and vice versa.

The pink haired boy played around on his phone, surfing the net to the familiar sounds of Io's notebook keyboard. After so many years, the clicking and clacking had become a background noise almost as natural as the songs of the birds or rustling leaves.

He kind of liked it, it was almost rhythmically. If keyboards make musical sounds instead of clack-clack, Io might have composed a song or two by long.

In fact, Ryuu could not even really remember for how long his friend had already been doing this. He knew Io for so long, and it had been years ever since he had showed interest in the stock market. Ryuu had never asked, never complained, never wondered. As long as Io was there, just like had always been, everything was alright.

Sitting back to back, supporting each other on lazy days like these, this was what they had been doing ever since.

Everything was perfect.

Well, almost. There was one little thing missing right now, Ryuu thought.

He saw how his phone lit up with a new message from a girl he couldn't remember the face of, contemplated on it for a moment, but then put it away into the grass next to him.

He rocked is body against Io's slightly, trying to get the other's attention.

His friend took a moment to react, but in the end, he did.

"What is it, Ryuu?"

The teenager poked his friend with his finger in the back a little.

"Nothing really… Except, you know… wanna kiss?"

"Hm…" Io leaned back, pushing Ryuu forward a little. He laid the back of his head on his friend's shoulder, facing the green roof above them. "It's a little hard like this, isn't it?"

Ryuu pushed himself back into his initial position, balancing the two of them out a little more. He too threw back his head to meet Io's, pink hair brushing over his face. It was a slightly awkward position like this, but at least they did not have to break out of their most comfortable setup. After all, they had been sitting like this for years after years, but it had only been a few weeks since they had started kissing from time to time.  
Everything was still new.

And what was worse, Ryuu had no idea what these kisses meant to Io. Or to himself, really.

They felt nice and right and all, but Io had never really lost a word on the subject. It had been Ryuu who had shyly initiated this practice, asked for the first kiss. Just for fun, he had said. Just to try if it's different with a guy, he had argued.

And to his surprise, it was indeed different – it was better. Ryuu was not sure if this was the case because Io was a boy or because Io was Io.

In any case, they both had come to like it.

The pink haired boy felt the weight pressing to his back and shoulder disappear.

Io closed his laptop and turned around some more into a useful position. Their faces met.

"You know that I'm not going to make any profit the time this will take us, right?"

Ryuu grinned at his friend. He had him exactly where he wanted him to be. "Sure, but you're not making any losses either."

It seemed like Io contemplated on this statement for a second, then he sighed a little and smiled.

"Guess you're right…"

They kissed.

It was great.

The summer warmth, the wind dancing through the trees and grass and hair and clothes, the birds, Io's lips on his – it could hardly get any better.

Well, except, perhaps…

But Ryuu shouldn't think about this, he found. When they drew apart again, he looked into his friend's eyes, noticed his fine, long lashes. Had Io always had them? He couldn't remember. Maybe he had never looked at his friend's face so closely.

They had never been that close. Maybe it was too close already.

He wanted to kiss again.

Quickly, before Io could turn back again, Ryuu placed another small one on the other one's lips. He grinned, then one more followed, this time on his nose.

"Hey, Ryuu, stop, you're overdoing it…"

Io didn't sound like he wouldn't like it. The pink haired tried for more, which made Io laugh for some reason. Maybe his face was ticklish, Ryuu had never tried that before.

He wanted even more, but Io gently pushed him away.

"That's enough for now. It spoils the fun when you're doing it too often."

When he turned around again, Ryuu thought he had seen Io blushing, or maybe it was just a normal reaction from the tickling kisses.

Yes, that was probably it, Io surely wouldn't blush because of this. He never had, after all.

Or had he?

Ryuu, in fact, was.

When he turned back into his initial position as well, back to back with his best friend, he noticed how fast his heart was beating. Maybe this was not only out of happiness, because of how good the kisses had felt.

Perhaps there was more to it. Ryuu had been thinking about this for a while now.

But he couldn't tell Io. He had to keep up his name, both of their reputations, and the way their relationship was now had already reached dangerous levels.

But even despite that, he couldn't help but wanting more, wishing to be even closer.

He felt his back against Io's back, the way it had always been, ever since he could remember.

It was better if they went on like usual. This was how it was alright.

Everything was perfect.

Almost.


	3. Birthday

** Y**

This was not really how Ryuu had imagined his birthday to happen. Well, to be fair, it wasn't his birthday yet, but since his parents were away for a few days anyway, he had decided to invite Io over and wait for midnight. Celebrating with the rest of his friends would follow later the day.

Actually Ryuu had planned to take advantage of his parents' big TV – watching a movie or two, playing some games, things like that. He had chosen one part of the _Friday the 13__th_ series, mostly out of irony because this year's March 13th did indeed fall on a Friday. Not that Ryuu believed in bad omens and things like that. Of course not. Not at all.

Maybe.

But to him it seemed at least like his birthday was somehow affected by this date, or at least the day prior, strangely enough. The evening was not really running the way he had imagined it to.

Somewhere after the first round of games, during which it had turned out that Io was surprisingly good at Mario Kart, Ryuu's friend had fallen back into his usual habit of checking his phone for new stock market developments, trades and the like. He had asked him if he could borrow a laptop briefly and Ryuu had thought "briefly" would actually mean briefly, but it had turned out it didn't.

As Io explained, he was following a new investment strategy which, if done right, could bring him billions of Yen. So he ended up typing and surfing away on Ryuu's laptop for most of the night, all throughout the movie they had been supposed to watch together.

Ryuu wasn't particularly amused by this.

Throughout the whole horror movie, he commented on pretty much every single scene, trying to get Io's attention away from the laptop. Unfortunately for him, it hardly ever seemed to work; Io would at most look up for a moment, murmur "I see" or "You're right" and return to his stockmarketing.

No, Ryuu was absolutely not amused by this.

But on the other hand, he had hardly any time to complain. His constant comments did not only drive Io's attention away from the laptop (at least sometimes), but they also managed to veil the fact that Ryuu found this movie quite scary after all.

Of course, he would never directly tell Io that. Rather, he forced himself to laugh at particularly bad scenes, pointing out how obviously fake everything looked. One or two times, however, he couldn't stop himself from almost subconsciously grabbing Io's arm or shoulder. He cursed himself upon noticing this, remembering that awkward night during their last summer holidays. He would always remember that night.

Luckily, Io never really seemed to notice.

After the movie was over, Io still hadn't looked up from the laptop more than two or three times. Whatever he had been doing these two hours, he still seemed not finished with it.

Ryuu leaned back against the couch and sighed. On the one had he was relieved the movie was over, on the other hand he was somewhat annoyed by Io's behavior.

"Seriously, now that it's ended, you can stop hiding behind the laptop."

This managed to make Io look up.

"I'm not sure if I get what you mean…"

Ryuu sighed again. He felt the urge to get back at Io, to somehow annoy him the way Io had annoyed him during the evening. He was not mad at him or anything, he just felt it hadn't been the right way of behaving when staying over at somebody else's place. Sure, Io had been doing his financial business stuff when they were together countless times, but tonight was different. Tonight was special.

"Oh come on! I know you've been pretending to be busy all the time because you were scared of the stuff in the movie! No need to be shy, we're alone, you can just admit it, I won't tell anyone."

Io looked at him with big eyes. He silently raised both eyebrows, stopped typing around on the laptop.

"Oh, but I thought you wanted to enjoy the movie on your own. I think horror movies are stupid, I didn't want to spoil your fun. It's your birthday, after all. Well, close to it…"

Ryuu laughed. He didn't know Io hated horror movies. Thinking about it, they hardly talked about movies at all, anyway.

"But you've been glued to this thing all night now, and you could hear everything from the film at least, I bet you were scared!" He didn't want to let Io get away with this yet.

Io smiled one of his usual, confident smiles. "Hm, perhaps. But you were scared too, right? You've been clinging to me ever so often."

The pink haired boy swallowed. Contrary to his hopes, Io had noticed how he had grabbed him from time to time. Well, at least it was just among the two of them; if the other Defense Club members had heard of this, there would be a lot of teasing.

He felt his face grow hot a little, hoping Io wouldn't notice how he blushed. Luckily for him, the room was hardly lit at all to keep up an atmosphere for the movie. But his friend was still looking at him firmly, he was probably waiting for any sort of reply to his assumption.

What should he answer now? They both knew it was true, Ryuu had clung to him a few times, so what else was there to say? During their summer vacation, Io had not commented on it either.

Ryuu jumped up and took a deep breath. He positioned himself before Io, trying to create an aura of authority as the host of this little party. This was his place, he was making the rules. His friend kept sitting on the carpet before him, obviously wondering what was suddenly going on.

"Anyway! You shouldn't have used the laptop all evening as a guest!"

To his surprise, Io closed the computer immediately, then stretched and yawned a little, rubbed his eyes.

"Well, you could have just said so", he replied, "and I would have stopped. My strategy didn't work out the way I wanted it to anyway, so I was basically just surfing around most of the time. I thought you wanted to watch your movie in peace."

The teenager was speechless. He hadn't expected this kind of answer, he had never thought about the possibility of just asking Io to stop. His stock market stuff had been such a integral part of his friend for so many years that Ryuu had just taken it as it is, as if it would have been like asking him to stop breathing or something.

He suddenly felt stupid and guilty for having judged Io this wrongly, after so many years of friendship.

He blushed again, scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry, I…"

But Io just smiled at him.

"No, it's okay. I guess my opinion of horror movies wouldn't have helped you with your fear anyway. But I guess like this, it worked out, right? The film doesn't seem to have left any traces on you, I'm glad. We're close to your birthday, after all." He yawned shortly.

Ryuu laughed again to veil his embarrassment about Io's sudden kindness. The heat in his face seemed to spread through his whole head now.

He frantically looked around in hope to find something to derive Io's attention away from him and his red face for moment and saw that it was close to midnight.

Good.

"Oh look, it's almost twelve! I'll get something to celebrate, gonna be right back!"

And thus he hurried off into the bathroom, hoping that some cold water would make the blush disappear. Then Ryuu took some snacks from the kitchen, as well as two glasses and the open wine bottle his parents had left behind. Both of them were still slightly too young to legally drink alcohol, but who cared. Birthdays are birthdays.

When he returned to the living room, he found Io sleeping.

Somewhere within the few minutes Ryuu had been away, his friend had apparently lost the battle against the sleepiness he had displayed earlier already. Ryuu knew he usually got up early, worked a lot and slept early. It was not too much of a surprise he was taking a nap now, but the pink haired boy was still a little disappointed.

He sighed and sat down next to Io, letting him sleep for a few more minutes. He watched his face in the faint light of the running TV. The screen casted bluish shadows on his face, accentuating the soft features of it with cold light. A small strand of hair had fallen out of its usual place.

Ryuu raised a hand to brush said hair out of Io's face. It was only a little bit of it, but still spoiled the view, in his eyes. He had seen Io sleeping so often and it had always been quite a sight, the way people lost all of their usual posture in this condition was incredible. Io appeared especially fascinating to him, his youthful face became like that of a little boy, almost angelic.

But just as Ryuu was about to touch his beige hair, the other teen yawned. He rubbed his eyes again, stretched and finally looked at his friend.

It was about a minute to midnight.

"Oh, I'm sorry", he said, "I didn't mean to…"

His sight fell on Ryuu's hand, which had frozen in its initial position when Io had shown signs of waking up. Like this, it was still quite close to Io's face.

When the pink haired noticed, he drew it away as quickly as possible, laughed.

"If you'd slept any longer, I would have doodled on your face!"

Io had a look at his watch. He looked back at Ryuu and smiled.

"Happy birthday."

The pink haired grinned at him.

"Thanks!"

He opened the wine bottle and poured some of it into their glasses, eyeing the contents for a moment. To be fair, Ryuu had never drunken wine before, and he had no idea what kind of wine his parents preferred. He only knew that if it was a dry one, it was probably not good for beginners. Well, they had snacks.

While he tried to read through the label on the bottle but quite failed due to all the Italian on it, Io took his glass, tried a bit of it, and then spoke without commenting on the taste or quality.

"By the way, Ryuu. Before you're wondering, I didn't buy you anything this year."

The birthday boy looked up.

This was… surprising. Despite Io's infamous reluctance to spend money, he had given him at least something small each year. Nothing too expensive or great, but always something he would definitely like. A new piercing, a scarf, some badges to put on his clothes.

But nothing at all was indeed new.

Ryuu had a drink of the wine. It tasted slightly bitter.

His friend put his glass back on the table and leaned back against the couch with a serene smile.

"But don't think I came with empty hands. Symbolically speaking, at least."

Before Ryuu could wonder what exactly Io meant, the other boy moved forward again, closing the space between the two of them.

The kiss was over faster than Ryuu could react.

When he realized what had just happened, he jumped back, blushing furiously. In the light of the TV screen, he could see how Io's cheeks were faintly red as well.

"Io, what did you just…"

This time it was his friend, usually stern and self-confident, who scratched his head in embarrassment. He backed away a little, avoided Ryuu's eyes, unsure tone in his voice.

"Sorry, I just thought you would… I mean, you probably never realized, but…"

It was true, Ryuu had indeed not realized before that Io seemed to like him in this way. But on the other hand, Io had apparently noticed that the other way round was also true.

Io sighed.

"Sorry, this was probably a stupid kind of present. Let's forget about it."

The pink haired teenager grabbed his friend's shoulders, almost knocking over the small couch table. He could feel the burning heat of the blush in his face, but he didn't care anymore. It was way too late to care now. There was no turning back anymore.

"No, it wasn't stupid, not at all! But you're stupid, you should have done that earlier…"

There, he said it.

There was probably more to say, a lot more to talk about between them, but that was not important right now. What was important was realizing that they both felt the same. There was no need for hiding anything anymore.

This time it was Ryuu initiating a kiss. It was slightly longer than before, but still just as shy. But it felt good and right and everything.

When they parted, the two boys smiled at each other. Io drew Ryuu closer to him.

"Hey, Io", Ryuu started after they had been sitting there silently for some minutes, arm in arm.

"Hm?"

"Can I request something else?"

Io laughed. "Don't act spoiled just because it's your birthday."

Ryuu's pouty face made the other boy sigh, with a pleased smile on his face. "Okay, what is it?"

He was a little embarrassed to say it, but in the end, there was no helping it.

"I want another kiss…"

His friend laughed again. "Alright, alright. It's your birthday, after all…"

They kissed again; longer, more intense. It was getting better and better with each try. Io's embrace felt good. Seemed like in the end, the evening had turned out pretty good, Friday the 13th or not. In fact, it was even better now than he had ever imagined.

Maybe it was true what people said, the best presents can't be bought with money.

"Happy birthday, Ryuu."

"Thanks."


End file.
